Justice News

Canadian Resident Sentenced in Sextortion Case

An Ontario man was sentenced today to 30 years in federal prison after having pleaded guilty to charges related to the sexual exploitation of two minor girls, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Field Office, and Chief Michael Patton of the West Bloomfield Police Department.

According to court records, from October through December 2013, Antonio P. Fontana, 59, coerced and enticed a 15-year-old girl (“Victim 1”) residing in the Eastern District of Michigan into performing various sexual acts for him in front of an Internet webcam on an almost daily basis. Fontana first began communicating with the victim on an Internet website, where he was posing as a 16-year-old boy. Fontana recorded many, if not all, of the sexual acts he forced Victim 1 to perform. Fontana threatened to post the recordings of Victim 1 on the Internet and to send them to her friends and family if she did not continue to perform sexual acts for him. When Victim 1 ultimately attempted to stop speaking to Fontana in late December 2013, Fontana continued to communicate with Victim 1 and her mother in an attempt to coerce Victim 1 into continuing to communicate. At various times in January and February, 2014, Fontana followed through with his threats, and sent sexually explicit images of Victim 1 to Victim 1’s email contacts and her mother.

Fontana committed similar conduct from November to December 2014 with a second minor victim (“Victim 2”), a 14-year-old girl in the Eastern District of Michigan. Further investigation revealed that Fontana had similarly exploited children from all over the world, including several in the United States, Finland and England

“This defendant used the internet to exploit and extort innocent children in the most humiliating way. The bravery of the child in this case to come forward and report the perpetrator's conduct certainly prevented other children from being exploited this way.”

"Mr. Fontana hid behind the anonymity of the Internet to target and sexually exploit children in the most reprehensible of ways," stated David P. Gelios, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. "This investigation proves the reach of the FBI, along with its local, state and federal partners, is a long one; in this case even across international borders. The protection of our children from depraved predators and online threats will remain a priority as long as there are those who would sexually exploit our children."

“Predators that target children via the Internet are not limited by state or national jurisdictional boundaries,” said Chief Patton. “The entire West Bloomfield community is thankful for the efforts and cooperation of the local, federal, and international law enforcement partners which led to this indictment.”

Fontana was extradited to the United States from Canada last year.

McQuade praised the work of the Special Agents of the FBI, the officers from the West Bloomfield Police Department and the detectives from the major crime unit of the Durham Regional Police Service, Ontario, Canada. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Douglas Salzenstein and Matthew Roth.